I like the idea as well. On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 2:22 PM, Lorelle on WordPress < [email protected]> wrote:
> This is so exciting. The Docs team has been walking on egg shells for > years over the confusion of the WordPress Handbook, and I'm eager to see > new energy being sent in this direction. > > The close ties between the Forum and Codex have been there since the > beginning. However, time and skills serving the Forum and the time and > skills serving documentation are distinctive, as several people mentioned. > I agree that there needs to be one or two people overseeing the > organizational structure, management, and maintenance of the Codex. > > Having a site of our own has been essential and lacking, which is why we > created the unofficial docs task list not long ago. It was critical that we > find a better way of communicating and keeping our community connected than > the mailing list. As it was "unofficial," we haven't done much to promote > it or work with it, but it was a start. We need to have a place to support > and educate each other on how to write for the Codex and offer task lists > beyond those we've had in the past on the Codex, so I'm excited about > having our own space or making the current blog on WordPress.com official. > > The mailing list has not been the sole line of communication either. As > many do, I work with many people one on one to help them write and edit for > the Codex and assign tasks, communicating with the mailing list when > necessary for edits and such. > > As we struggled to understand the role the WordPress Handbook and > WordPress Lessons played in the role of documentation in the WordPress > Community, we've come to realize the Codex best serves the WordPress > Community by providing support for issues found within the Forums, > expanding upon Learn WordPress instructions for the WordPress Lessons > section, and developing more extensive documentation and guides beyond the > basics found within the help files, especially servicing developers and > programmers. > > While melding together Forum and Codex sounds great on the surface, I > agree with Andrea and others that we need to have one or more people > focused on the bigger picture overseeing the Codex, thus supporting the > overall WordPress Community better. > > Thanks for the survey, Jane, and for helping with all of this. > > Lorelle > > > > > > On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 8:28 AM, Andrea Rennick > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> It makes totally sense, because Support & Docs are two sides of the same >> coin. :) If users can't understanding docs or can't find them, they post in >> the forums. ;P >> >> Better docs mean less support issues, because people don't scale. And the >> people answering questions are the first ones who see the need for new >> docs. Because they answer the same questions over and over (and over) again. >> >> Getting people to read docs is a separate issue, but having support and >> docs work hand in hand in tandem is a big first step. >> >> I think half the people overlap anyway, yes? >> >> a. >> >> >> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Chip Bennett <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> Personally, I love the idea. Speaking as a contributor group member who >>> tries to keep in the loop regarding support and/or Codex issues that impact >>> our group (or issues where our contributor group can be helpful), such >>> consolidation is welcome. >>> >>> Chip >>> >>> >>> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 7:09 AM, Jane Wells <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi everyone. The results of the recent surveys to identify active >>>> contributors and elect team reps made it pretty clear that the docs team is >>>> in a bit of a slump, organizationally speaking. Only 5 people from the >>>> wp-docs post responded, and of those, 2 were new or not yet contributing, >>>> and there was no consensus re reps among the remaining 3 respondents. It >>>> got me thinking about how we organize contributors, what has worked well >>>> elsewhere in the WP ecosystem and in other free software projects, and >>>> leads me to this proposal: what if we combined forums and docs into one >>>> Support team? >>>> >>>> Looking back at the Codex activity from the past six months or year, >>>> chunks of it have been tied to forum mods (like Ipstenu and Andrea_r), >>>> other contributor groups (like Chip on the Theme Review Team), and new >>>> releases. Not that how Automattic/WordPress.com organizes itself should >>>> decide anything, but their support team manages forums, email support, and >>>> docs, and it seems to work pretty well. They have a schedule for reviewing >>>> existing documentation so it never gets too far out of date, and the people >>>> on the front lines with users in the forums and via email can see very >>>> clearly where they need to beef up documentation. I'm thinking this could >>>> work well for .org, too. Those who are strong writers and just want to >>>> contribute to documentation could still do so, but within a context of what >>>> our user support needs are at any given time based on the actual support >>>> requests. >>>> >>>> What I'm envisioning is less siloing of contributor personnel, with one >>>> group blog at make.wordpress.org/support that uses tags like forums >>>> and codex to organize posts, and has pages to help orient new contributors >>>> and get them started. These mailing lists could fade away in favor of email >>>> subscriptions from the blog, which are more easily searchable and would be >>>> more visible to potential contributors. Within the uber-group, some people >>>> would naturally gravitate toward specific tasks while others would >>>> multi-task as they have been doing. >>>> >>>> Over time we could expand the purview of the group to include things >>>> like moderating instructional videos and comments at wordpress.tv (and >>>> start embedding appropriate videos into codex), possibly helping to staff >>>> in-person help desks in local communities and/or at events like WordCamps >>>> and Meetups, etc. I think the prospects are pretty exciting, and I could >>>> see this becoming the biggest and most active of all the contributor >>>> groups, which would be awesome. >>>> >>>> If there are any strong objections to this approach, please reply to >>>> this thread today so we can discuss. If not, and everyone is willing to >>>> give this a shot and all work together (at least as an experiment for, say, >>>> the next release cycle or two), I'll go ahead and set up the group blog >>>> tomorrow. >>>> >>>> Jane >>>> ______________________________**_________________ >>>> wp-docs mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-docs<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-docs> >>>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> wp-docs mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-docs >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> -- >> Andrea Rennick, http://wpebooks.com and http://ronandandrea.com >> Co-author of WordPress All-In-One For Dummies http://rml.me/aio >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> wp-docs mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-docs >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > wp-docs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-docs > >
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